This it must be admitted has become an important question for consideration, it being evident that unless some "New Material" suitable for the purpose is speedily introduced, the "Paper Trade," one of the most important in the United Kingdom, will be seriously crippled; meanwhile of necessity high prices are maintained, and as a natural consequence the consumer suffers.
Fibre-producing Plants—Sources of Supply.
The high value of land precludes the cultivation of any fibrous material exclusively for paper-making in England, even if this climate was suitable for its growth; with the exception indeed of "Flax" and "Hemp," it would appear that northern latitudes are not favourable for the production of fibre-producing plants, and therefore it is to warm or tropical countries alone any reliable supply of "New Material" can be looked for.
In the East, and West Indies, in her Colonies and Dependencies, England possesses an inexhaustible supply of fibre-producing plants; in India especially, almost every plant abounds more or less in fibre.
In China and Japan, as also in India, from the earliest times, paper has been made exclusively from raw indigenous virgin fibres, and the paper produced in these countries is in consequence generally extremely strong and tough, and although unbleached, and not made in a fashion adapted to European requirements, affords ample and conclusive evidence of the valuable supply of material at our disposal.
Vegetable Fibrous, or Fibre-producing Plants, are divided by Botanists into two distinct Classes or Divisions: Endogens, or inside growers; Exogens, or outside growers.
From the former are obtained the fibres known as "Manilla Hemp" or "Abaca" (from the Musa textilis or Plantain), the "Aloe," "Agavé" (or "Pita Fibre"), the "Yucca," "Bromelia penguin," "Sisal Hemp" (or Hannequin); "Pina Fibre" from the "Pine Apple" (Ananassa sativa), "Marool or Moorva" (Sanseveira Zeylanica), "New Zealand Flax" (Phormium tenax), &c.; "Maize" (or Indian Corn), "Rice," and other "Cereal Straws," "Esparto," "Diss," and various "Sedges," "Reeds," and "Grasses," the latter including "Bamboo," and "Sugar Cane," are also comprised in this Class.
The Fibres, or Fibrous Tissue enveloping the Stems of Herbaceous Plants, known as "Hemp," "Flax," "Jute," "Hibiscus," (Gombo or Okhro), "Rhea," or "China-Grass" (Urtica nivea), "Sunn Hemp" (Cratolaria juncea), &c., as also the Lace Barks (so called), such as the "Adansonia digitatas" (from the Baobab tree), the "Nepal Paper Plant" (Daphne cannabina), the "Paper Mulberry" (Broussonetia papyrifera), &c., constitute the latter Class.
I have confined myself to recapitulating a few only of the fibres in either class, best known to commerce; this list, indeed, might be extended almost indefinitely, as may be seen by reference to the work before alluded to, 'The Fibrous Plants of India,' by Dr. Forbes Royle, as also to the elaborate Paper on the same subject, read at the meeting of the Society of Arts, May 9, 1860, by Dr. J. Forbes Watson, Reporter on the Products of India, Dr. Royle's able successor.
With some few exceptions (notably "Esparto" and some of the Cereal straws and grasses), the resulting or ultimate fibres from vegetable fibrous plants, before they can be utilized either for Textile purposes, or for the manufacture of Paper, must be freed from the extraneous substances with which during their growth they are more or less combined.